Getting Green Off The Grid

Electric vehicles are starting to look really attractive after $4/gallon gasoline…
Running on Empty: Cars That Never Need Gas> In Your Community > We Can Do It > Sierra Club

But the short answer for the solar pay-back, he says, was “the instant I turned my system on.” Dickey had been paying $75 a month for electricity. […]

Neat. I wonder when someone will apply this to larger concert venues.
Sola-System

We designed and built this device for anyone that needs outside amplification of music, from a Bar-B-Q with a small Mp3 player to a play in the park musician looking to amplify their guitar or turn tables.

I really like sites that allow you to monitor their solar usage. It helps to get a near real-time view of their solar power usage, to see how to build your own.
The State | 05/11/2008 | Chapin Middle School gets solar connection

Chapin Middle is one of the state’s 20 Green Power Solar Schools that […]

DIY: Solar lantern

This is a 3-part article on building a solar lantern. It’s a well-documented project, and there are a lot of pictures of the build process.

With video. I wonder how many places this thing is street legal.
BRENT HATCH

I’m just a regular guy that knows very little about motors, efficiency, etc. Man, some engineer should be able to have a field day coming up with all kinds of solar powered alternatives to our mobile lives. I should […]

Simple, helps keep garbage where it belongs, uses less garbage bags, and gives people an incentive to throw things away by watching this thing operate. Eventually the novelty would wear off, but it would take a long time to get everywhere.
BigBelly Solar Trash Receptacle : The Alternative Consumer

The BigBelly is a self-powered compacting trash […]

Hopefully they can make this work in the near future.
New Ways to Store Solar Energy for Nighttime and Cloudy Days

The idea is to capture the sun’s heat. Heat, unlike electric current, is something that industry knows how to store cost-effectively. For example, a coffee thermos and a laptop computer’s battery store about the same amount […]

A barangay is a small government controlled area. I suppose that would be similar to a county or city.
Manila Bulletin Online

The last week in March, Energy secretary Angelo Reyes, in a presscon following a speech at the Renewable Energy Conference in Washington, announced that with the use of solar and micro-hydro power 11,000 barangays […]

I find it interesting that government seems to want more self-reliance in respect to itself…
Bloomberg Wants Solar Panels on City Buildings | The New York Observer

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that the City Department of Administrative Services (DCAS) would issue an RFP for private solar developers to purchase, install, own and maintain solar panels […]

Sounds rather fragile to me. I was thinking more of the NASA balloon that rose when the sun is out, and dropped when the temperature drops. That would be similar to the wave power generators that people want to use on shorelines.
Solar balloons to power remote areas? | Environment | Reuters

The helium-filled balloons, […]